V. I. Lenin

The Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P.

APRIL 12–27 (APRIL 25–MAY 10), 1905

DRAFT RESOLUTIONS OF THE ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR CONVENING THE THIRD
CONGRESS ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN
ORGANISATIONS{1}

TheOrganising Committee, having examined the question of the Caucasian
delegation on the basis of the facts published in various writings and the
testimony of witnesses, comrades from the Caucasus, has arrived at this
unanimous decision:

1.Among the votes at the Congress, it is necessary and solely correct
to reckon the 8 votes of the Caucasian delegation, because back in the
autumn of 1903, the C.C. approved the Rules of the Caucasian Union
Committee, and under these Rules, the Caucasian Union Committee, as a Union
Committee, was allowed 8 votes at the Congress.

2.As for the contradictory statements by Comrade Glebov in the Council
and the Council’s decision in May 1904 to regard temporarily, pending
clarification of the question, as votes those of the four separate
Caucasian committees (Baku, Batum, Tiflis and Imeretia and Mingrelia), the
Organising Committee cannot consider this statement of Glebov’s and the
Council’s decision an obstacle to the adoption of the conclusion stated in
§ 1, since Comrade Glebov has clearly shown himself to be uninformed,
which is why he unwittingly misled the Council.

3.Considering it unquestionable that there are now three delegates
from the Caucasus with six votes, the O.C. states that Comrade Leonov,
member of the Caucasian Union Committee, declares the following concerning
the fourth delegate with two votes: the Caucasian Union Committee intended
to allow the Batum Committee to approve this fourth delegate. When the
Batum Committee gave a vague and evasive reply on this matter, the
Caucasian Union Committee, at a sitting attended by Leonov, expressed the
wish that in the absence of a special delegate fromBatum at the Congress the votes of the fourth delegate should be
transferred to Comrade Kamenev (Yuri).

4.Stating this, the O.C. leaves it to the Congress itself to decide on
the question of a fourth delegate from the Caucasian Union Committee.

Concerningthe powers of the Kremenchug Committee the Organising
Committee declares:

1)The Kremenchug Committee was approved by the Central Committee only
in August 1904, according to Comrade Mark, a member of the C.C., who
attended the meeting of the C.C. at which the approval took place.

2)The Kremenchug Committee does not appear on the Party Council’s list
of 33 empowered organisations, which was published inIskraNo. 89.

Onthe strength of the above stated, the O.C. decides:
not to regard the Kremenchug Committee among the full-fledged organisations
with the right of vote at the present Congress.

Yekaterinoslav

TheOrganising Committee, having heard the report of Comrade Morozov,
delegate of the Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee, and the written
communication of Comrade Yevgeny, member of the old committee in
Yekaterinoslav, reached the following unanimous decision:

TheOrganising Committee does not see any grounds to consider the
present Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee less legitimate than the Minority
Committee either in formal terms or in terms of succession and ties with
local workers.

However,in view of the fact that the O.C. has no opportunity of
hearing the explanations of the other side, it does not adopt a decision on
the vote of the delegate from the Yekaterinoslav Majority Committee,
leaving it to the Congress itself to decide on the matter.

Concerningthe powers of the Kazan and Kuban commit tees, the O.C. has
failed to reach any decision, as the votes of the C.C. and the M.C.B. were
split.

TheM.C.B. believes that these committees cannot be recognised as
having the necessary powers because these committees did not appear on the
list of committees approved until April 1, 1905, at the Council’s sitting
in May 1904 (delegates Lenin and Glebov from the C.C.). Even if the Kazan
and Kuban committees were approved by the Central Committee after May 1904,
they will at any rate be entitled to representation only after one
year. Besides, these committees could not have been approved at the general
meeting of the C.C. in July 1904, because the minutes of this meeting were
in their entirety delivered by Glebov to Lenin abroad, and they contained
no information concerning, the approval of the Kazan and Kuban
committees. Finally, nothing was said about it either at the August or
September sitting of the C.C., which was attended by C.C. member Comrade
Mark.

TheC.C. believes that since these committees were inserted in theIskralist, apparently on behalf of the Party Council, we have no
ground for recognising these committees as lacking the required powers.

{1}These resolutions, written by Lenin, were adopted at the last sitting
of the Organising Committee for Convening the Third R.S.D.L.P. Congress on
April 11 (24), 1905, and announced in the O.C. report at the first sitting
of the Congress on April 12 (25), 1905, by L. B. Krasin, member of the
O.C. from the Central Committee (seeTrety syezd
R.S.D.R.P. Protokoly, Moscow) 1959, pp. 30–31).

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